Allan Quatermain

CHAPTER XI
THE FROWNING CITY

For an hour or more I sat waiting (Umslopogaas having
meanwhile gone to sleep also) till at length the east turned grey, and huge
misty shapes moved over the surface of the water like ghosts of
long-forgotten dawns. They were the vapours rising from their watery bed
to greet the sun. Then the grey turned to primrose, and the primrose grew
to red. Next, glorious bars of light sprang up across the eastern sky, and
through them the radiant messengers of the dawn came speeding upon their
arrowy way, scattering the ghostly vapours and awaking the mountains with a
kiss, as they flew from range to range and longitude to longitude. Another
moment, and the golden gates were open and the sun himself came forth as a
bridegroom from his chamber, with pomp and glory and a flashing as of ten
million spears, and embraced the night and covered her with brightness, and
it was day.

But as yet I could see nothing save the beautiful blue
sky above, for over the water was a thick layer of mist exactly as though
the whole surface had been covered with billows of cotton wool. By degrees,
however, the sun sucked up the mists, and then I saw that we were afloat
upon a glorious sheet of blue water of which I could not make out the
shore. Some eight or ten miles behind us, however, there stretched as far
as the eye could reach a range of precipitous hills that formed a retaining
wall of the lake, and I have no doubt but that it was through some entrance
in these hills that the subterranean river found its way into the open
water. Indeed, I afterwards ascertained this to be the fact, and it will
be some indication of the extraordinary strength and directness of the
current of the mysterious river that the canoe, even at this distance, was
still answering to it. Presently, too, I, or rather Umslopogaas, who woke
up just then, discovered another indication, and a very unpleasant one it
was. Perceiving some whitish object upon the water, Umslopogaas called my
attention to it, and with a few strokes of the paddle brought the canoe to
the spot, whereupon we discovered that the object was the body of a man
floating face downwards. This was bad enough, but imagine my horror when
Umslopogaas having turned him on to his back with the paddle, we recognized
in the sunken features the lineaments of -- whom do you suppose? None
other than our poor servant who had been sucked down two days before in the
waters of the subterranean river. It quite frightened me. I thought that
we had left him behind for ever, and behold! borne by the current, he had
made the awful journey with us, and with us had reached the end. His
appearance also was dreadful, for he bore traces of having touched the
pillar of fire -- one arm being completely shrivelled up and all his hair
being burnt off. The features were, as I have said, sunken, and yet they
preserved upon them that awful look of despair that I had seen upon his
living face as the poor fellow was sucked down. Really the sight unnerved
me, weary and shaken as I felt with all that we had gone through, and I was
heartily glad when suddenly and without any warning the body began to sink
just as though it had had a mission, which having been accomplished, it
retired; the real reason no doubt being that turning it on its back allowed
a free passage to the gas. Down it went to the transparent depths --
fathom after fathom we could trace its course till at last a long line of
bright air-bubbles, swiftly chasing each other to the surface, alone
remained where it had passed. At length these, too, were gone, and that
was an end of our poor servant. Umslopogaas thoughtfully watched the body
vanish.

'What did he follow us for?' he asked. ''Tis an ill
omen for thee and me, Macumazahn.' And he laughed.

I turned on him angrily, for I dislike these unpleasant
suggestions. If people have such ideas, they ought in common decency to
keep them to themselves. I detest individuals who make on the subject of
their disagreeable presentiments, or who, when they dream that they saw one
hanged as a common felon, or some such horror, will insist upon telling one
all about it at breakfast, even if they have to get up early to do it.

Just then, however, the others woke up and began to
rejoice exceedingly at finding that we were out of that dreadful river and
once more beneath the blue sky. Then followed a babel of talk and
suggestions as to what we were to do next, the upshot of all of which was
that, as we were excessively hungry, and had nothing whatsoever left to eat
except a few scraps of biltong (dried game-flesh), having abandoned all
that remained of our provisions to those horrible freshwater crabs, we
determined to make for the shore. But a new difficulty arose. We did not
know where the shore was, and, with the exception of the cliffs through
which the subterranean river made its entry, could see nothing but a wide
expanse of sparkling blue water. Observing, however, that the long flights
of aquatic birds kept flying from our left, we concluded that they were
advancing from their feeding-grounds on shore to pass the day in the lake,
and accordingly headed the boat towards the quarter whence they came, and
began to paddle. Before long, however, a stiffish breeze sprang up,
blowing directly in the direction we wanted, so we improvized a sail with a
blanket and the pole, which took us along merrily. This done, we devoured
the remnants of our biltong, washed down with the sweet lake water, and
then lit our pipes and awaited whatever might turn up.

When we had been sailing for an hour, Good, who was
searching the horizon with the spy-glass, suddenly announced joyfully that
he saw land, and pointed out that, from the change in the colour of the
water, he thought we must be approaching the mouth of a river. In another
minute we perceived a great golden dome, not unlike that of St Paul's,
piercing the morning mists, and while we were wondering what in the world
it could be, Good reported another and still more important discovery,
namely, that a small sailing-boat was advancing towards us. This bit of
news, which we were very shortly able to verify with our own eyes, threw us
into a considerable flutter. That the natives of this unknown lake should
understand the art of sailing seemed to suggest that they possessed some
degree of civilization. In a few more minutes it became evident that the
occupant or occupants of the advancing boat had made us out. For a moment
or two she hung in the wind as though in doubt, and then came tacking
towards us with great swiftness. In ten more minutes she was within a
hundred yards, and we saw that she was a neat little boat -- not a canoe
'dug out', but built more or less in the European fashion with planks, and
carrying a singularly large sail for her size. But our attention was soon
diverted from the boat to her crew, which consisted of a man and a woman,
nearly as white as ourselves.

We stared at each other in amazement, thinking that we
must be mistaken; but no, there was no doubt about it. They were not fair,
but the two people in the boat were decidedly of a white as distinguished
from a black race, as white, for instance, as Spaniards or Italians. It
was a patent fact. So it was true, after all; and, mysteriously led by a
Power beyond our own, we had discovered this wonderful people. I could
have shouted for joy when I thought of the glory and the wonder of the
thing; and as it was, we all shook hands and congratulated each other on
the unexpected success of our wild search. All my life had I heard rumours
of a white race that existed in the highlands of this vast continent, and
longed to put them to the proof, and now here I saw it with my own eyes,
and was dumbfounded. Truly, as Sir Henry said, the old Roman was right when
he wrote 'Ex Africa semper aliquid novi', which he tells me means that out
of Africa there always comes some new thing.

The man in the boat was of a good but not particularly
fine physique, and possessed straight black hair, regular aquiline
features, and an intelligent face. He was dressed in a brown cloth
garment, something like a flannel shirt without the sleeves, and in an
unmistakable kilt of the same material. The legs and feet were bare.
Round the right arm and left leg he wore thick rings of yellow metal that I
judged to be gold. The woman had a sweet face, wild and shy, with large
eyes and curling brown hair. Her dress was made of the same material as the
man's, and consisted, as we afterwards discovered, first of a linen
under-garment that hung down to her knee, and then of a single long strip
of cloth, about four feet wide by fifteen long, which was wound round the
body in graceful folds and finally flung over the left shoulder so that the
end, which was dyed blue or purple or some other colour, according to the
social standing of the wearer, hung down in front, the right arm and breast
being, however, left quite bare. A more becoming dress, especially when,
as in the present case, the wearer was young and pretty, it is quite
impossible to conceive. Good (who has an eye for such things) was greatly
struck with it, and so indeed was I. It was so simple and yet so
effective.

Meanwhile, if we had been astonished at the appearance
of the man and woman, it was clear that they were far more astonished at
us. As for the man, he appeared to be overcome with fear and wonder, and
for a while hovered round our canoe, but would not approach. At last,
however, he came within hailing distance, and called to us in a language
that sounded soft and pleasing enough, but of which we could not understand
one word. So we hailed back in English, French, Latin, Greek, German,
Zulu, Dutch, Sisutu, Kukuana, and a few other native dialects that I am
acquainted with, but our visitor did not understand any of these tongues;
indeed, they appeared to bewilder him. As for the lady, she was busily
employed in taking stock of us, and Good was returning the compliment by
staring at her hard through his eyeglass, a proceeding that she seemed
rather to enjoy than otherwise. At length, the man, being unable to make
anything of us, suddenly turned his boat round and began to head off for
the shore, his little boat skimming away before the wind like a swallow. As
she passed across our bows the man turned to attend to the large sail, and
Good promptly took the opportunity to kiss his hand to the young lady. I
was horrified at this proceeding, both on general grounds and because I
feared that she might take offence, but to my delight she did not, for,
first glancing round and seeing that her husband, or brother, or whoever he
was, was engaged, she promptly kissed hers back.

'Ah!' said I. 'It seems that we have at last found a
language that the people of this country understand.'

'In which case,' said Sir Henry, 'Good will prove an
invaluable interpreter.'

I frowned, for I do not approve of Good's frivolities,
and he knows it, and I turned the conversation to more serious subjects.
'It is very clear to me,' I said, 'that the man will be back before long
with a host of his fellows, so we had best make up our minds as to how we
are going to receive them.'

'The question is how will they receive us?' said Sir
Henry.

As for Good he made no remark, but began to extract a
small square tin case that had accompanied us in all our wanderings from
under a pile of baggage. Now we had often remonstrated with Good about
this tin case, inasmuch as it had been an awkward thing to carry, and he
had never given any very explicit account as to its contents; but he had
insisted on keeping it, saying mysteriously that it might come in very
useful one day.

'What on earth are you going to do, Good?' asked Sir
Henry.

'Do -- why dress, of course! You don't expect me to
appear in a new country in these things, do you?' and he pointed to his
soiled and worn garments, which were however, like all Good's things, very
tidy, and with every tear neatly mended.

We said no more, but watched his proceedings with
breathless interest. His first step was to get Alphonse, who was
thoroughly competent in such matters, to trim his hair and beard in the
most approved fashion. I think that if he had had some hot water and a
cake of soap at hand he would have shaved off the latter; but he had not.
This done, he suggested that we should lower the sail of the canoe and all
take a bath, which we did, greatly to the horror and astonishment of
Alphonse, who lifted his hands and ejaculated that these English were
indeed a wonderful people. Umslopogaas, who, though he was, like most
high-bred Zulus, scrupulously cleanly in his person, did not see the fun of
swimming about in a lake, also regarded the proceeding with mild amusement.
We got back into the canoe much refreshed by the cold water, and sat to dry
in the sun, whilst Good undid his tin box, and produced first a beautiful
clean white shirt, just as it had left a London steam laundry, and then
some garments wrapped first in brown, then in white, and finally in silver
paper. We watched this undoing with the tenderest interest and much
speculation. One by one Good removed the dull husks that hid their
splendours, carefully folding and replacing each piece of paper as he did
so; and there at last lay, in all the majesty of its golden epaulettes,
lace, and buttons, a Commander of the Royal Navy's full-dress uniform --
dress sword, cocked hat, shiny patent leather boots and all. We literally
gasped.

'What!' we said, 'what! Are you going to
put those things on?'

'Certainly,' he answered composedly; 'you see so much
depends upon a first impression, especially,' he added, 'as I observe that
there are ladies about. One at least of us ought to be decently
dressed.'

We said no more; we were simply dumbfounded, especially
when we considered the artful way in which Good had concealed the contents
of that box for all these months. Only one suggestion did we make --
namely, that he should wear his mail shirt next his skin. He replied that
he feared it would spoil the set of his coat, now carefully spread in the
sun to take the creases out, but finally consented to this precautionary
measure. The most amusing part of the affair, however, was to see old
Umslopogaas's astonishment and Alphonse's delight at Good's transformation.
When at last he stood up in all his glory, even down to the medals on his
breast, and contemplated himself in the still waters of the lake, after the
fashion of the young gentleman in ancient history, whose name I cannot
remember, but who fell in love with his own shadow, the old Zulu could no
longer restrain his feelings.

'Oh, Bougwan!' he said. 'Oh, Bougwan! I always thought
thee an ugly little man, and fat -- fat as the cows at calving time; and
now thou art like a blue jay when he spreads his tail out. Surely, Bougwan,
it hurts my eyes to look at thee.'

Good did not much like this allusion to his fat, which,
to tell the truth, was not very well deserved, for hard exercise had
brought him down three inches; but on the whole he was pleased at
Umslopogaas's admiration. As for Alphonse, he was quite delighted.

'Ah! but Monsieur has the beautiful air -- the air of
the warrior. It is the ladies who will say so when we come to get ashore.
Monsieur is complete; he puts me in mind of my heroic grand --'

Here we stopped Alphonse.

As we gazed upon the beauties thus revealed by Good, a
spirit of emulation filled our breasts, and we set to work to get ourselves
up as well as we could. The most, however, that we were able to do was to
array ourselves in our spare suits of shooting clothes, of which we each
had several, all the fine clothes in the world could never make it
otherwise than scrubby and insignificant; but Sir Henry looked what he is,
a magnificent man in his nearly new tweed suit, gaiters, and boots.
Alphonse also got himself up to kill, giving an extra turn to his enormous
moustaches. Even old Umslopogaas, who was not in a general way given to the
vain adorning of his body, took some oil out of the lantern and a bit of
tow, and polished up his head-ring with it till it shone like Good's patent
leather boots. Then he put on the mail shirt Sir Henry had given him and
his 'moocha', and, having cleaned up Inkosi-kaas a little, stood forth
complete.

All this while, having hoisted the sail again as soon as
we had finished bathing, we had been progressing steadily for the land, or,
rather, for the mouth of a great river. Presently -- in all about an hour
and a half after the little boat had left us -- we saw emerging from the
river or harbour a large number of boats, ranging up to ten or twelve tons
burden. One of these was propelled by twenty-four oars, and most of the
rest sailed. Looking through the glass we soon made out that the row-boat
was an official vessel, her crew being all dressed in a sort of uniform,
whilst on the half-deck forward stood an old man of venerable appearance,
and with a flowing white beard, and a sword strapped to his side, who was
evidently the commander of the craft. The other boats were apparently
occupied by people brought out by curiosity, and were rowing or sailing
towards us as quickly as they could.

'Now for it,' said I. 'What is the betting? Are they
going to be friendly or to put an end to us?'

Nobody could answer this question, and, not liking the
warlike appearance of the old gentleman and his sword, we felt a little
anxious.

Just then Good spied a school of hippopotami on the
water about two hundred yards off us, and suggested that it would not be a
bad plan to impress the natives with a sense of our power by shooting some
of them if possible. This, unluckily enough, struck us as a good idea, and
accordingly we at once got out our eight-bore rifles, for which we still
had a few cartridges left, and prepared for action. There were four of the
animals, a big bull, a cow, and two young ones, one three parts grown. We
got up to them without difficulty, the great animals contenting themselves
with sinking down into the water and rising again a few yards farther on;
indeed, their excessive tameness struck me as being peculiar. When the
advancing boats were about five hundred yards away, Sir Henry opened the
ball by firing at the three parts grown young one. The heavy bullet struck
it fair between the eyes, and, crashing through the skull, killed it, and
it sank, leaving a long train of blood behind it. At the same moment I
fired at the cow, and Good at the old bull. My shot took effect, but not
fatally, and down went the hippopotamus with a prodigious splashing, only
to rise again presently blowing and grunting furiously, dyeing all the
water round her crimson, when I killed her with the left barrel. Good, who
is an execrable shot, missed the head of the bull altogether, the bullet
merely cutting the side of his face as it passed. On glancing up, after I
had fired my second shot, I perceived that the people we had fallen among
were evidently ignorant of the nature of firearms, for the consternation
caused by our shots and their effect upon the animals was prodigious. Some
of the parties in the boats began to cry out in fear; others turned and
made off as hard as they could; and even the old gentleman with the sword
looked greatly puzzled and alarmed, and halted his big row-boat. We had,
however, but little time for observation, for just then the old bull,
rendered furious by the wound he had received, rose fair within forty yards
of us, glaring savagely. We all fired, and hit him in various places, and
down he went, badly wounded. Curiosity now began to overcome the fear of
the onlookers, and some of them sailed on up close to us, amongst these
being the man and woman whom we had first seen a couple of hours or so
before, who drew up almost alongside. Just then the great brute rose again
within ten yards of their base, and instantly with a roar of fury made at
it open-mouthed. The woman shrieked, and the man tried to give the boat
way, but without success. In another second I saw the huge red jaws and
gleaming ivories close with a crunch on the frail craft, taking an enormous
mouthful out of its side and capsizing it. Down went the boat, leaving its
occupants struggling in the water. Next moment, before we could do
anything towards saving them, the huge and furious creature was up again
and making open-mouthed at the poor girl, who was struggling in the water.
Lifting my rifle just as the grinding jaws were about to close on her, I
fired over her head right down the hippopotamus's throat. Over he went,
and commenced turning round and round, snorting, and blowing red streams of
blood through his nostrils. Before he could recover himself, however, I
let him have the other barrel in the side of the throat, and that finished
him. He never moved or struggled again, but instantly sank. Our next
effort was directed towards saving the girl, the man having swum off
towards another boat; and in this we were fortunately successful, pulling
her into the canoe (amidst the shouts of the spectators) considerably
exhausted and frightened, but otherwise unhurt.

Meanwhile the boats had gathered together at a distance,
and we could see that the occupants, who were evidently much frightened,
were consulting what to do. Without giving them time for further
consideration, which we thought might result unfavourably to ourselves, we
instantly took our paddles and advanced towards them, Good standing in the
bow and taking off his cocked hat politely in every direction, his amiable
features suffused by a bland but intelligent smile. Most of the craft
retreated as we advanced, but a few held their ground, while the big
row-boat came on to meet us. Presently we were alongside, and I could see
that our appearance -- and especially Good's and Umslopogaas's -- filled
the venerable-looking commander with astonishment, not unmixed with awe.
He was dressed after the same fashion as the man we first met, except that
his shirt was not made of brown cloth, but of pure white linen hemmed with
purple. The kilt, however, was identical, and so were the thick rings of
gold around the arm and beneath the left knee. The rowers wore only a
kilt, their bodies being naked to the waist. Good took off his hat to the
old gentleman with an extra flourish, and inquired after his health in the
purest English, to which he replied by laying the first two fingers of his
right hand horizontally across his lips and holding them there for a
moment, which we took as his method of salutation. Then he also addressed
some remarks to us in the same soft accents that had distinguished our
first interviewer, which we were forced to indicate we did not understand
by shaking our heads and shrugging our shoulders. This last Alphonse, being
to the manner born, did to perfection, and in so polite a way that nobody
could take any offence. Then we came a standstill, till I, being
exceedingly hungry, thought I might as well call attention to the fact, and
did so first by opening my mouth and pointing down it, and then rubbing my
stomach. These signals the old gentleman clearly understood, for he nodded
his head vigorously, and pointed towards the harbour; and at the same time
one of the men on his boat threw us a line and motioned to us to make it
fast, which we did. The row-boat then took us in tow, and went with great
rapidity towards the mouth of the river, accompanied by all the other
boats. In about twenty minutes more we reached the entrance to the
harbour, which was crowded with boats full of people who had come out to
see us. We observed that all the occupants were more or less of the same
type, though some were fairer than others. Indeed, we noticed certain
ladies whose skin was of a most dazzling whiteness; and the darkest shade
of colour which we saw was about that of a rather swarthy Spaniard.
Presently the wide river gave a sweep, and when it did so an exclamation of
astonishment and delight burst from our lips as we caught our first view of
the place that we afterwards knew as Milosis, or the Frowning City (from
mi, which means city, and losis, a frown).

At a distance of some five hundred yards from the
river's bank rose a sheer precipice of granite, two hundred feet or so in
height, which had no doubt once formed the bank itself -- the intermediate
space of land now utilized as docks and roadways having been gained by
draining, and deepening and embanking the stream.

On the brow of this precipice stood a great building of
the same granite that formed the cliff, built on three sides of a square,
the fourth side being open, save for a kind of battlement pierced at its
base by a little door. This imposing place we afterwards discovered was
the palace of the queen, or rather of the queens. At the back of the palace
the town sloped gently upwards to a flashing building of white marble,
crowned by the golden dome which we had already observed. The city was,
with the exception of this one building, entirely built of red granite, and
laid out in regular blocks with splendid roadways between. So far as we
could see also the houses were all one-storied and detached, with gardens
round them, which gave some relief to the eye wearied with the vista of red
granite. At the back of the palace a road of extraordinary width stretched
away up the hill for a distance of a mile and a half or so, and appeared to
terminate at an open space surrounding the gleaming building that crowned
the hill. But right in front of us was the wonder and glory of Milosis --
the great staircase of the palace, the magnificence of which took our
breath away. Let the reader imagine, if he can, a splendid stairway,
sixty-five feet from balustrade to balustrade, consisting of two vast
flights, each of one hundred and twenty-five steps of eight inches in
height by three feet broad, connected by a flat resting-place sixty feet in
length, and running from the palace wall on the edge of the precipice down
to meet a waterway or canal cut to its foot from the river. This
marvellous staircase was supported upon a single enormous granite arch, of
which the resting-place between the two flights formed the crown; that is,
the connecting open space lay upon it. From this archway sprang a
subsidiary flying arch, or rather something that resembled a flying arch in
shape, such as none of us had seen in any other country, and of which the
beauty and wonder surpassed all that we had ever imagined. Three hundred
feet from point to point, and no less than five hundred and fifty round the
curve, that half-arc soared touching the bridge it supported for a space of
fifty feet only, one end resting on and built into the parent archway, and
the other embedded in the solid granite of the side of the precipice.

This staircase with its supports was, indeed, a work of
which any living man might have been proud, both on account of its
magnitude and its surpassing beauty. Four times, as we afterwards learnt,
did the work, which was commenced in remote antiquity, fail, and was then
abandoned for three centuries when half-finished, till at last there rose a
youthful engineer named Rademas, who said that he would complete it
successfully, and staked his life upon it. If he failed he was to be
hurled from the precipice he had undertaken to scale; if he succeeded, he
was to be rewarded by the hand of the king's daughter. Five years was
given to him to complete the work, and an unlimited supply of labour and
material. Three times did his arch fall, till at last, seeing failure to
be inevitable, he determined to commit suicide on the morrow of the third
collapse. That night, however, a beautiful woman came to him in a dream
and touched his forehead, and of a sudden he saw a vision of the completed
work, and saw too through the masonry and how the difficulties connected
with the flying arch that had hitherto baffled his genius were to be
overcome. Then he awoke and once more commenced the work, but on a
different plan, and behold! he achieved it, and on the last day of the five
years he led the princess his bride up the stair and into the palace. And
in due course he became king by right of his wife, and founded the present
Zu-Vendi dynasty, which is to this day called the 'House of the Stairway',
thus proving once more how energy and talent are the natural
stepping-stones to grandeur. And to commemorate his triumph he fashioned a
statue of himself dreaming, and of the fair woman who touched him on the
forehead, and placed it in the great hall of the palace, and there it
stands to this day.

Such was the great stair of Milosis, and such the city
beyond. No wonder they named it the 'Frowning City', for certainly those
mighty works in solid granite did seem to frown down upon our littleness in
their sombre splendour. This was so even in the sunshine, but when the
storm-clouds gathered on her imperial brow Milosis looked more like a
supernatural dwelling-place, or some imagining of a poet's brain, than what
she is -- a mortal city, carven by the patient genius of generations out of
the red silence of the mountain side.